K-19 - The Widowmaker

Rating:
Summary: ROUGH RUSSIAN WRECK
Review: In Brief

Based on the events of a true story, the film explores the emotional drama that unfolds around Captain Alexei Vostrikov (Harrison Ford) who in 1961, at the height of the Cold War, is ordered to take command of the nuclear missile submarine K-19 from its original commander Captain Mikhail Polenin (Liam Neeson). The Soviet's first nuclear submarine, the K-19 is an ill-prepared beast, and Vostrikov must quickly ready her for her maiden voyage & test fire a missile no matter what the cost may be.

Review

Nicknamed the Widowmaker during its outfit and construction after the death of several workers involved with K-19, it was always felt to be a cursed boat and the events as retold here seem to confirm this. It was only after the collapse of the Soviet Union that this story could be told - and the emotional drama is extreme and worthwhile. Both Neeson and Ford are brilliant in their portrayals of the Captains at loggerheads; submerged in not only a crate with a nuclear reactor pasted into it but also a political exercise where the schedule takes priority over the needs of reality.

While noted director Kathryn Bigelow is capable of delivering on the action, as she has proven in the past with films such as Near Dark, Strange Days or Point Break, her films always manage to stand out from the run of the mill action genre fare. One could argue that it is her innate ability to deliver believable characters, allowing even the darkest or toughest of them to show their bare belly of motivating emotion to an audience, that makes her work stand out from the rest. K-19 is no different, as the parallel opposites in command show us: the two Captains, Ford ruling with a rod of iron, Neeson the velvet glove. Both appear to be the opposites of the other, yet both serve their motherland putting the brotherhood of the Union before all else, and if anything are merely symbolic of the two sides of one ruler.

This use of binary opposites runs as a theme throughout the film and is most notably picked up in the lighting and camerawork by the director of photography, Jeff Cronenweth whose previous work included the stunning Fight Club. Here one can't help but notice the polish of the nuclear reactor, isolated in its chamber of bright fluorescent light, incongruous to its outer confines of the old style shell of a submarine with its analogue dials & switches bathed in a hue of bronze old sticky light. Indeed throughout the course of the film there is a pleasing combination of CGI camera movements through the hull of the boat to steady cam shots within, thus displaying the grandeur of such a 'modern' machine. While later as the mood of the film takes a turn for the worse this is reinforced with frantic handheld camera work and the use of a shallow depth of field that has been present in many of the shots through the entire film becomes more apparent and indeed poignant highlighting the claustrophobia and panic that ensues.

The only minor annoyance that I had with the film was the particularly bad Russian accents used by some of the actors. At times it felt more like a "wessal" full of Chekhov's from Star Trek worrying about the "noo-clear ree-ac-tor and mee-siles." That said the performances by the supporting cast are among some of the best I have seen in a film this year and it is only the believability of their work that elevated the tension and interaction between both Ford and Neeson - who ultimately hold the film together.

The Verdict

The sheer horror and ultimately the gratification of this film comes from the reality that is communicated so well. The build up within the narrative is not wasted and a link between the crew and audience is established well. You feel that you have gotten to know these men that are suffering, yet the story is not about them but rather the two central figures. And while both are played well this shift of focus to the chain of command makes one feel that there are other stories within the boat that are merely hinted at and are somewhat lost. Its strength comes from the fact that this happened but like all dramatisations this too is its weakness for one cannot help but think to what degree a certain amount of embellishment has taken place. Ultimately this is the story of two Captains and their men, not the other way around, and on that level it works so well it should not be missed.

Rating:
Summary: You'll hold your breath, long and often
Review: 1961. The Russian submarine K19, stocked with nuclear missiles, is about to embark upon its maiden mission: to scare the US by test-firing one of the missiles in the North Atlantic. The mission is complicated by the military's rushed schedule and the K19 is scheduled to sail in less-than-perfect operating condition. Harrison Ford is the star and executive producer in this edge-of-your-seat film. Both Ford and Liam Neeson star as Soviet Navy Captains. Ford relieves Neeson at the helm and the two butt heads, challenging each other for command. Ford drills the crew obsessively to prepare them for potential crisis. Like APOLLO 13, this mission was cursed from the beginning. Ten men were killed before the K19 had even left port. The nickname "Widowmaker" was established before its maiden voyage. After they set sail, everything goes wrong. The nuclear reactor cooling system sprung a leak, threatening to raise the core temperature to 1,000 degrees. This would detonate the nuclear weapons, starting a chain reaction leading to WWIII. The crewmen must go on a suicide rescue mission into the core and repair the leak, exposing themselves to massive doses of radiation.

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow (Pointe Break and Strange Days), "K19" was inspired by a real-life Cold War incident. The actual crew was sworn to secrecy for 28 years. In 1989, with the fall of communism, the crew of the K19 were finally able to discuss the events of their mission and put it to rest.

Prior to seeing this film, I heard negative reports regarding Harrison Ford's so-called Russian accent. Let's try to see beyond the accents and experience what the film is really about. The K19 is on its maiden voyage and wasn't truly ready to sail. The crew is young, inexperience and scared. Their acting captain and the man they know and trust as their captain are in the showdown of their lives. Ford and Neeson should be proud of their performance that put them in line with the classic showdowns of Clark Gable/Burt Lancaster (1958-"Run Silent, Run Deep") and Denzel Washington/Gene Hackman (1995-"Crimson Tide"). This film has spectacular sound effects and special underwater effects that made me hold my breath like I did with "U-571". Outstanding cinematography, fabulous acting and casting. A wonderfully told story.

Rating:
Summary: Sometimes reality is far worse than Hollywood
Review: I became a fan of the "sub" genre after seeing movies like U-571 and The Hunt for Red October. While U-571 was sort of a pastiche of all the other submarine films that went before it, it made me an immediate fan. It also made me realize just how contrived spaceship movies are.

Unlike the other films, K-19 - The Widowmaker is about a real incident (like the supposed Red October incident) in which a Russian nuclear submarine's reactor nearly had a catastrophic meltdown just off the eastern coast of the United States in the 1960s. Scary stuff.

As a result of this gritty reality, K-19 is powerful in a way that Titanic was powerful. It doesn't matter if the movie isn't quite realistic - the events are so horrible that tension is rife throughout the film. Or at least, it should be.

K-19's initial launch is a debacle. In short, the submarine never has a chance to be successful - the men are inexperienced and costs are cut, such that K-19's crew is lucky that it even works at all. Add in the ship's doctor getting run over by a truck, the failure of the christening bottle to break against the sub's hull, and the firing of the chief engineer and it's hard to disagree with the notion that the ship is cursed.

The new captain aboard Alexei Vostrikov, played by Harrison Ford, pushes the sub to its limits. The tension rises as he forces the crew to do random drills, forces it to dive to near crushing depths, and rise right through the arctic ice. This by far is the most exciting part of the film - there is no enemy except Vostrikov, and it's nail biting after witnessing the poor construction of K-19. Ultimately, K-19 fires its test missile, signaling a message to America that the Russians could launch a nuclear strike if they wished.

Then the sub is pushed to its limits once again, beyond what even Alexei could have feared. They are to patrol the eastern seaboard, right near a NATO base. The ship's original captain, Mikhail Polenin (Liam Neeson) disagrees. Indeed, he disagrees with everything Vostrikov does because he puts the men at risk. I couldn't help but feel contempt for Polenin, who seems so attached to his crew that he no longer has the stomach for war. I'm not sure if that was the director's intent.

Unfortunately, the second half of the film drags. The ship's engines begin to overheat and the inexperienced chief engineer concocts a plan to pipe coolant into the system from the ship's freshwater tanks. Failure means a nuclear explosion "a hundred times worse than Hiroshima."

And so we have a long, slow, miserable, sometimes disgusting foray into the effects of radiation poisoning on the human body. The men who go in have naught but chemical suits rather than radiation suits to protect them. That is, they have no protection at all. So they are exposed for 10 minutes a time in an attempt to minimize the radiation poisoning.

Not only doesn't that tactic works, the radiation leak spreads throughout the submarine. Alexei's choice: accept help from the Americans and save the men or sacrifice his crew to retain Soviet secrets. This decision takes a loooong time to resolve. The movie loses a lot of its momentum, almost becoming a different film that's a lot more like The Andromeda Strain.

What was most striking about this part of the film was how it's been cribbed in other genres. I couldn't help but be reminded of Wrath of Khan, my favorite Star Trek film. Similar to K-19, an officer takes it upon himself to enter the highly lethal radiation chamber in order to "sacrifice the few to save the many." It's chilling to imagine that real human beings had to make that choice. It certainly changed my perspective on Wrath of Khan. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

Ultimately, the Russians on board were treated like traitors instead of war heroes. The men weren't fighting any enemy but the politics of Russia itself, and as such they could never leave the disaster of K-19 as heroes. The movie wraps up with what happened to them afterwards, after the fall of the U.S.S.R. At least 27 of the crew died from radiation poisoning.

K-19 is a depressing movie that is torn between being an action submarine flick like U-571 or a disease epidemic battle for survival like Andromeda Strain. It's not as good as either film, but the fact that it's based on real-life events leaves a chilling reminder that sometimes reality is far worse than anything Hollywood can dream up.

Rating:
Summary: An Exciting Submarine Movie
Review: Veteran actors Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson star in this thrilling film about a Russian nuclear submarine and its crew during the height of the cold war. Ford stars as Captain Alexi Vostrikov, a by-the-book, bend and no break commander of the Russian submarine K-19. Neeson stars as Captain Mikhail Polenin. Polenin is the exact opposite of Vostrikov. He is well liked by the crew and is willing to take advice from them.

The K-19 is the newest is Russian submarine technology. Capable of firing missiles up and down the American coast, the submarine and its crew set off on their maiden training mission.
The crew successfully fires the test missile, but soon another problem develops. The crew soon realizes that their nuclear reactor which powers the ship has developed a severe leak which threatens to possibly destroy the ship.

Volunteers are chosen to go inside the reactor area to try to fix the leak by welding pipes to bypass the leak, but these men soon are suffering from radiation exposure. Meanwhile, an American destroyer has come upon the crippled sub and has offered assistance. Vostrikov is determined not to seek help from the "enemy" Americans, and the K-19 does manage to contact another Russian sub and the crew is transferred.

I thought this was a very good movie. Neeson and Ford do very good jobs as the Russian captains, although I didn't care too much for the fake Russian accents. The special effects, especially the underwater shots of the K-19 are excellent. I've been a fan of submarine movies for a long time, and I rate this movie alongside others such as "U-574", "Crimson Tide", and "The Hunt for Red October". It is full of excitement and will definitely captivate you throughout.

Rating:
Summary: excellent submarine saga
Review: "K-19: The Widowmaker" is a superb Cold War submarine saga, brilliantly directed by Kathryn Bigelow and featuring solid performances by a first-rate cast. Based on a true story that occurred in 1961, but which only came to light in the West after the fall of the Soviet Union, "K-19" shows how close the world came to experiencing a nuclear explosion thanks to rank Soviet incompetence. "K-19" was the pride of the Russian navy, a nuclear-powered sub that the leaders felt would help the Soviets achieve parity with the United States in the escalating arms race occurring at that time. But on the boat's maiden voyage things managed to go terribly wrong, thanks mostly to the gross ineptitude of the leaders in charge of building and equipping the boat. Poorly made, inadequately supplied and lacking the necessary back up plans in case of a dire emergency, the sub set out on its mission with not one but two captains aboard, Mikhail Polenin (Liam Neeson) and Alexi Vostrikov (Harrison Ford), the latter sent in by the Soviet higher-ups to take over the mission after questions arose as to the ability of Polenin to handle such a crucially important mission. Much of the tension in the film arises from the conflict that develops between the humanitarian instincts of Polenin and the hard-nosed, almost maniacally rigid Vostrikov who seems almost willing to sacrifice the lives of his men rather than to admit defeat of any kind.

Working off the screenplay by Christopher Kyle, director Bigalow minimizes the clichés usually associated with films set aboard submarines and concentrates instead on the human drama at the story's core. Sure we have the obligatory scene wherein the obsessed captain, wanting to push both the boat and the crew to their respective limits, ends up ordering that the sub be taken down to near-crush level. But that scene is kept very short and comprises only a very small part of the whole drama. Of much greater interest to the filmmakers - and to the audience - is the way in which the men react to a crisis of almost unimaginable proportions. When the core nuclear reactor gives way and the men are faced with the threat of death through radiation poisoning, the film becomes both a gripping suspense drama and a poignant study of fear, duty and heroism. Bigalow keeps the tension high throughout by recording not only the fascinating details of the reactor disaster itself, but also the clash that develops between the two captains as they struggle for power and try to weigh the lives of the men against the importance of the mission and the patriotic call to duty.

Technically, the film does a superb job keeping focused on the intense drama of the situation. With superb editing and sound effects, the film makes us sense what life must really be like aboard that sub. Bigalow effectively uses the moving camera techniques pioneered by Wolfgang Peterson in "Das Boot" to help keep the action flowing. She is also blessed with a fine cast including Ford and Neeson who play off each other brilliantly, both actors showing the same stubbornness and humanity that define each of their characters, even though they seem to be at loggerheads during much of the time. Peter Sarsgaard is also excellent as the inexperienced crewmember who struggles with his own conflict between fear and duty, heroism and cowardice.

Though the film does become a bit heavy-handed and sentimental in its closing stretches, "K-19" is, over all, one of the more intelligent action movies of the past several years. It also happens to be the best submarine picture since the classic "Das Boot."

Rating:
Summary: Competent, well made Cold War thriller
Review: "K-19: The Widowmaker" sailed into theaters in July 2002 and quickly sank, despite Harrison Ford's being in command. Ford's action thrillers are usually boxoffice winners, but the public may have seen this one as a war movie, of which there were several earlier in the year. While it takes place on a Russian submarine at the height of the Cold War, it belongs more to the thriller genre than the war genre. While less compelling than "13 Days", another film based on true events from the Cold War, but it is quite competent and often exciting.

... A crew with divided loyalties aboard a badly built boat. The movie follows the terrified crew's desperate attempts to save K-19 and themselves.

Ford and Neeson, as well as Peter Sarsgaard [who plays the officer in charge of the reactors], are quite good. They are hampered with Russian accents, along with the rest of the cast. The accent was an unfortunate choice, I think. It's unnecessary because every character in the movie is a Russian presumably speaking his native language. Since the audience knows this, the accent is superfluous and distracting. Despite this flaw, "K-19" is decent entertainment that also makes some good points about mankind's mad pursuit of dangerous technologies.

Rating:
Summary: A well-done movie in a non-Hollywood way
Review: I wasn't expecting to be enthralled when I went to this movie (it was husband's choice movie night), but after the first five minutes of the film, I was thoroughly hooked. I came out of the theater feeling like I'd actually seen one of the first above-average movies of the year.

In this movie, Harrison Ford plays a 1960s Soviet sub captain who is brought in to command the Soviet navy's new nuclear submarine after the original captain (Liam Neeson) is removed from the position for political reasons. Neeson stays on the ship as second in command, and Ford is forced to contend with the crew's loyalty to Neeson. Problems plague the submarine before it even leaves drydock, leading the men to begin calling it "The Widowmaker."

This movie isn't told from an American point of view, and doesn't restrict itself to American ideals. The drama is played out without being biased by Hollywood notions of hero vs. villain or a formulaic plot. It really seems like this movie was true to the historic event it was based on.

The characters were portrayed well by everyone in the cast, including Harrison Ford, who was cast against type. Ford turns out a really good performance as the domineering captain and manages to escape his celebrity and really descend into the character. I actually forgot I was watching a Harrison Ford movie. Liam Neeson is solid as well, and the crewmembers without exception turn out convincing performances.

Director Kathryn Bigelow delivers a strong and well done movie with "K-19: The Widowmaker". In a sea of forgettable fluff, this movie rises above typical Hollywood and achieves something special.

Rating:
Summary: Sometimes reality is far worse than Hollywood
Review: I became a fan of the "sub" genre after seeing movies like U-571 and The Hunt for Red October. While U-571 was sort of a pastiche of all the other submarine films that went before it, it made me an immediate fan. It also made me realize just how contrived spaceship movies are.

Unlike the other films, K-19 - The Widowmaker is about a real incident (like the supposed Red October incident) in which a Russian nuclear submarine's reactor nearly had a catastrophic meltdown just off the eastern coast of the United States in the 1960s. Scary stuff.

As a result of this gritty reality, K-19 is powerful in a way that Titanic was powerful. It doesn't matter if the movie isn't quite realistic - the events are so horrible that tension is rife throughout the film. Or at least, it should be.

K-19's initial launch is a debacle. In short, the submarine never has a chance to be successful - the men are inexperienced and costs are cut, such that K-19's crew is lucky that it even works at all. Add in the ship's doctor getting run over by a truck, the failure of the christening bottle to break against the sub's hull, and the firing of the chief engineer and it's hard to disagree with the notion that the ship is cursed.

The new captain aboard Alexei Vostrikov, played by Harrison Ford, pushes the sub to its limits. The tension rises as he forces the crew to do random drills, forces it to dive to near crushing depths, and rise right through the arctic ice. This by far is the most exciting part of the film - there is no enemy except Vostrikov, and it's nail biting after witnessing the poor construction of K-19. Ultimately, K-19 fires its test missile, signaling a message to America that the Russians could launch a nuclear strike if they wished.

Then the sub is pushed to its limits once again, beyond what even Alexei could have feared. They are to patrol the eastern seaboard, right near a NATO base. The ship's original captain, Mikhail Polenin (Liam Neeson) disagrees. Indeed, he disagrees with everything Vostrikov does because he puts the men at risk. I couldn't help but feel contempt for Polenin, who seems so attached to his crew that he no longer has the stomach for war. I'm not sure if that was the director's intent.

Unfortunately, the second half of the film drags. The ship's engines begin to overheat and the inexperienced chief engineer concocts a plan to pipe coolant into the system from the ship's freshwater tanks. Failure means a nuclear explosion "a hundred times worse than Hiroshima."

And so we have a long, slow, miserable, sometimes disgusting foray into the effects of radiation poisoning on the human body. The men who go in have naught but chemical suits rather than radiation suits to protect them. That is, they have no protection at all. So they are exposed for 10 minutes a time in an attempt to minimize the radiation poisoning.

Not only doesn't that tactic works, the radiation leak spreads throughout the submarine. Alexei's choice: accept help from the Americans and save the men or sacrifice his crew to retain Soviet secrets. This decision takes a loooong time to resolve. The movie loses a lot of its momentum, almost becoming a different film that's a lot more like The Andromeda Strain.

What was most striking about this part of the film was how it's been cribbed in other genres. I couldn't help but be reminded of Wrath of Khan, my favorite Star Trek film. Similar to K-19, an officer takes it upon himself to enter the highly lethal radiation chamber in order to "sacrifice the few to save the many." It's chilling to imagine that real human beings had to make that choice. It certainly changed my perspective on Wrath of Khan. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

Ultimately, the Russians on board were treated like traitors instead of war heroes. The men weren't fighting any enemy but the politics of Russia itself, and as such they could never leave the disaster of K-19 as heroes. The movie wraps up with what happened to them afterwards, after the fall of the U.S.S.R. At least 27 of the crew died from radiation poisoning.

K-19 is a depressing movie that is torn between being an action submarine flick like U-571 or a disease epidemic battle for survival like Andromeda Strain. It's not as good as either film, but the fact that it's based on real-life events leaves a chilling reminder that sometimes reality is far worse than anything Hollywood can dream up.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie, really enjoyed it !!!
Review: I enjoyed watching this movie, and happy
to have it part of my dvd collection !!!

Rating:
Summary: Sober sub drama
Review: Compared to sub stories before it like Hunt for Red October, Crimson Tide, K19 comes up a little short. Still its an interesting, if somber outing, with Harrison Ford struggling through a pseudo-Russian accent and Liam along for the ride. An average telling of the 1961 core meltdown accident aboard the K19 there are some compelling moments when the 7 crewmembers sign their death warrants by going into the core to repair a leak. It's depressing watching them go to their demise and the talk of duty and heroism rings hollow based on the context of the time and actions taken by Ford. Ah the ultimate futility of the conflict, it leaves one feeling emotionally blank.